


Unexpected Destiny

by Lady_Lou_Of_Lothlorien



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Canon divergence - Ending, F/M, Fluff, Mostly Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 13:44:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18032849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Lou_Of_Lothlorien/pseuds/Lady_Lou_Of_Lothlorien
Summary: Everyone knew that elves had powers, but elves are secretive beings and not all of their powers are well-known. This tale follows the story of the reader (written in 3rd person with use of [y/n]). Her destiny was foreseen by the elves and they froze her in time to make sure she was able to carry out the tasks fate had set her.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This story is also posted to my tumblr (which has the same user-name as here.) I hope you all enjoy this fic, kudos is great but comments are even better! Everyone loves feedback, even if it's small or even if it's just to point out where I made a horrendously funny spelling mistake.

The company first met [y/n] when they uncovered the troll horde. Perhaps ‘met’ is the wrong word … it would be more accurate to say that they found her. None of the dwarves had paid much attention to the coffin-like structure at the very back of the cave, not until light from the entrance had bounced off someone’s sword for a second. That brief moment of light had been enough to illuminate one of the coffin’s sides, and Gandalf’s attention was caught. The wizard leant more heavily on his staff as he squinted into the dark once again.

“What is that?”

Though he could no longer see it, some of the dwarves followed Gandalf’s now outstretched and pointing finger in the direction of whatever it was. Blessed with better vision in the dark than most of the species of middle earth, the dwarves who’d bothered to look could make out the outline of whatever it was. One of them – Dori, ever helpful – went closer, running his hand along the edge.

“It’s made of some kind of crystal, Mr. Gandalf. It’s got carvings on the sides, but I can’t make out what they are.”

A second passed away silently, and then the wise old wizard’s eyes widened as a memory stirred from long ago.

“Quickly, all of you!” He demanded, that urgent tone of voice commanding everyone’s attention. “We must get that outside – into the light!”

Several of the dwarves rushed instantly to join Dori, whilst others trudged over a little less enthusiastically – they hadn’t finished burying their new-found treasure after all.

“It will take all your strength to move it, if I am correct, but we must get it outside – careful!”

It did, in fact, take pretty much all of the strength the dwarves possessed to shift the object out into the open, and once in the daylight it could be seen clearly. It was a coffin, or at least that was what it appeared to be – a coffin carved out of some kind of opaque crystal and covered in the most intricate carvings. Some of the carvings showed depictions of nature – flowers, birds and the like – but most were words in some form of elvish that meant nothing to the dwarves, little to Bilbo, but a whole lot to Gandalf.

A very disgruntled and exhausted dwarf – Gloin – spoke up after he noticed that the wizard seemed to be too deep in his thoughts to give any explanation without being prompted to do so.

“Well wizard, what is it?”

Gandalf merely raised a hand, signalling for them all to be quiet.

“Hush… pay attention all of you.”

As the daylight continued to filter through the leaves above their heads and came to rest upon the surface of the coffin, the company watched in awe as the opaque crystal became transparent before their very eyes.

“It’s like glass…” Bilbo murmured, his soft eyes wide from what he’d just witnessed.

“Nay lad.” One of the dwarves responded, their voice practically reverent. “It’s like diamond.”

Now that the coffin was see-through, the company’s attention turned to what was inside. Let me rephrase that, they turned their attention to who was inside. It was [y/n], not that they knew who she was yet.

“Well..?” This time the voice that spoke was unmistakably that of Balin. “Is she dead?”

Gandalf’s reply came instantly, and not without a touch of warmth in his tone.

“No master dwarf, the woman you see before you is very much alive.”

The dwarves instantly flew into a fuss and began frantically searching for a handle or any kind of mechanism that would enable them to open the casket.

“We’ve got te’ get the lass out!”  
“What if she suffocates?”  
“Hurry lads!”

Bilbo, who hadn’t joined the dwarves in their panic, looked up through the sudden chaos to see their grey wizard struggling to hold back his laughter. Immediately the hobbit tried to get the dwarves’ attention over the kerfuffle.

“Wait- stop-“ His soft voice was barely heard, except by Thorin, who’s cool blue eyes darted from the hobbit to the wizard and then his voice rang out loud and clear.

“Stop – all of you, stop!” Silence. Then the wizard decided to explain.

“There is magic in that casket, powerful magic. There is only one way to open it…” he trailed off, the entire company looking up expectantly for a deeper explanation which he’d clearly chosen not to give. “Oh, why don’t you try putting your hands on the top?”

The suggestion was dropped so nonchalantly that it was practically comical how quickly the dwarves did exactly that. 13 sets of palm pressed down on top of the casket – only Thorin and Gandalf held back, though after a severe glance from Bilbo, Thorin placed his hands on the hard surface as well. Seconds passed, and all of a sudden there was a great rush of air as seams that hadn’t been there before appeared before their very eyes.

“Now you can remove the lid.” Gandalf’s eyes locked with Dwalin’s as the rest of the company removed the lid of the casket, a look of shock on his face as he looked away from Gandalf to stare at his palms and then around to the rest of the dwarves, none of whom seemed to be reacting the same way, and the gruff dwarf made a mental note to interrogate the wizard later.

The lid of the casket slid to the forest floor with a muffled yet heavy-sounding thug, along with a yelp from Kili who barely managed to get his toes out of the way before it fell. The dwarf closest to the head of the casket reached in as soon as the woman inside snapped her eyes open. She immediately hissed, an instinctive reaction, and let her head jerk forwards as she snapped at the hand. Sitting up, her first words were as follows.

“Elrond I swear don’t you dare-“ but then she cut off, noticing that she was in the middle of a forest, surrounded by dwarves. “…what?”

“Did you just hiss at me??” Screeched Fili, though many of the other dwarves were chuckling in amusement, though the loudest laughter belonged to Gandalf.

“Lady [y/n], it is wonderful to see you again after all these years.” The wizard pushed through the bodies of the dwarves and embraced [y/n], much to the surprise of the rest of the company. [Y/n] only looked resigned as she patted the ancient wizard on the back to return his hug.

“That bastard elf really did it, huh?”

Balin stepped closer to the casket, reaching his hand out to greet this newly awakened woman, and she accepted the gesture.

“Well lass, on behalf of the company, I extend our friendship. After all, anyone who would call an elf a bastard is a friend of the dwarves, right lads?” There was a resounding cheer from the other dwarves of the company, and [y/n] smiled.

That night, once the company was safe and settled, it was time for further explanations. Gandalf had hunkered down with his cloak and his pipe and had prepared to tell the tale. Almost as soon as he opened his mouth, [y/n] raised her hand and shushed him.

“This is my story, I think I’m more than capable of telling it myself”

The wizard was more than happy to relax and let someone else do the explaining for a change.

“The first thing I remember was waking up in Rivendell… the elves told me that I’d fallen through from another world, but it’s not like I remember anyway.” [Y/n] told of how the elves had tended to her wounds, and once she was healed they’d given her a place to stay more permanently.

“I suppose you could say I almost became one of them.” [Y/n] continued with a shrug and looked down at her hand as she heard a few startled gasp of disapproval from the dwarves.

“Absolutely.” [Y/n] snorted, earning a more amused reaction. “So… graceful and flouncy … well anyway, they were nice enough until one of those blasted pointy-ears decided to go and have a vision or a prophesy or something of the like –“ There Gandalf made to interrupt, obviously to offer a more in-depth explanation, but [y/n] stopped him once again.

“As much as I’m sure we’d all love to hear about the fine details of elves and their passion for meddling with future and consequently with people’s lives… we wouldn’t, so just let me continue.”

The wizard pressed his lips together, a slight nod and an understanding grunt-like-sound leaving him before he took another huff of his pipe.

“Anyway, like I was saying, one of those daft leaf-eaters had a vision about my future… but there was a problem.” The woman paused again and looked down at her hands; they were shaking slightly, but she only acknowledged this fact disinterestedly. [Y/n] risked a glance around at the company and noticed that they were all listening intently to what she had to say – the dwarves were especially enjoying the insults she was hurling at the elves. From the small one with hairy feet to the big grumpy looking one with the tattooed head, they were all listening. In fact, that particular dwarf seemed to be paying even more attention than the others. Their interest in her story gave [y/n] the strength she needed to continue her tale.

“The problem was that whatever this elf had seen was supposed to happen hundreds of years into the future… and I’m human, so it was completely impossible for me to survive that long. And that’s when that great crystal prison joins the party.” [Y/n] cleared her throat, forcing away emotions the story was threatening to stir up.

“Apparently the elves had this.. ancient ritual, a way of trapping someone at a fixed point in their life so that they may be sealed away until they’re needed or whatever. I… I told them not to do it. I told them that whatever stupid thing they’d foreseen didn’t mean anything to me. As a human, I thought that if someone was set to happen to me at a time when by all rights I should have died then it shouldn’t happen at all… but well..”

[Y/n] hastily dragged the edge of her sleeve over her eyes, determined not to cry in front of these dwarves who she barely knew.

“Gandalf, why don’t you take over now.” Her voice was a little quieter when she spoke this time, and the grey wizard gently pat her on the knee to comfort her as he readied himself to speak. Meanwhile, a certain member of the company felt his heart aching with the need to comfort her further.

“Of course, dear girl.” [Y/n] was grateful that the attention of the company was now directed almost entirely at the wizard and not at her, and she took the opportunity to slump a little where she sat and she couldn’t help but sigh. It might’ve been hundreds of years since it actually happened, but the memories were still incredibly fresh for her.

“The elves built the casket and placed [y/n] into it whilst she was sleeping. Their magic not only kept her body suspended in time, but also sealed the casket. Whilst the magic was in place it was impenetrable.”

In the pause, Thorin took the opportunity to speak up, his voice trembling with rage. The injustices he’d felt from elves in the past having been stirred up by [y/n]’s story.

“What you’re telling us, wizard, is that the elves of Rivendell imprisoned this woman inside that box for hundreds of years?” He grew louder as he spoke, and by the end of his question he was practically roaring. Hearing their King’s anger, the other dwarves in the company began yelling in outrage as well, and not for the first time that day the company descended into chaos.

[Y/n] was touched that these dwarves who she’d known for less than a full day could feel so strongly for her, even though she knew that their anger for her was deeply interwoven with anger they’d harboured against the elves for many years – more years than she’d been alive for… or at least, only counting the years she’d actually been awake for. Gandalf let them go on for a little until their angry cries began to naturally calm down, and then he called for quiet once again so he could continue.

“I cannot stress how strong the magic was on that casket. The fact that we were able to get it open at all means that this journey must somehow be linked to the prophesy that landed [y/n] in that casket in the first place.” Gandalf caught Dwalin’s eye from across the campfire and flashed him a rare but characteristic wink, and the warrior dwarf blanched at the action.

“That is the whole history.” But there was something in his tone that made a few of those listening question the truth of those words.

“Now you must all get some rest. Tomorrow is another day in your journey, and you still have far to go.”

[Y/n] and many of the others present were far too exhausted to argue with that suggestion, though Dwalin found an opportunity before he slept to confront the wizard.

“You ‘ave got some explaining t’ do.” He began, pointing an accusatory finger up into Gandalf’s chest. Despite Dwalin’s attempt at intimidation, Gandalf merely flashed him a tired smile.

“All in good time.”

With that, he left the dwarf to contemplate the events of the day, for so much seemed to have happened, and though there had been much explanation, there was still so much that was unknown.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so no one is confused, Dwalin's conversation with Gandalf will be explained in chapter 3 in juicy detail

Somehow they’d ended up at Rivendell, much to the chagrin of both the dwarves and [y/n], who had wished to never set eyes upon that place again. When Elrond had first greeted the dwarves, she’d ducked down in the centre of the dwarves and hidden so that he could not see her face, and though the elf had known exactly who she was without being able to see, he’d been kind enough to pretend he hadn’t and that he thought the odd behaviour was a product of the dwarves being overly protective of females.

Whilst the company was settling at Rivendell and the elves left them alone for a bit, [y/n] began to make an effort to get to know the company, though she found herself stubbornly sticking close to Gandalf as often as she could. Consequently, Dwalin had been given little opportunity to ask Gandalf any of the multiple questions swirling around in his brain. Most importantly, he had two main questions that he wanted answers to.

First, why had he felt some kind of reaction when he’d touched the casket’s lid but none of the other dwarves had the same reaction? Second, why did he feel a certain pull towards this human? Although Dwalin wasn’t entirely sure if the second question should really be asked or whether that was something more personal that he should really figure out for himself.

In any case, the first of the two questions continued to bother him more and more as time passed, and Dwalin was determined to get [y/n] away from Gandalf for long enough to interrogate the frustrating wizard.

In order to do this, Dwalin enlisted the help of two of the most mischievous dwarves… the young princes, Fili and Kili. In truth, he threatened them into helping him get [y/n] away from the wizard, but past that he’d left it up to the two young dwarves to come up with exactly how they were going to do that.

[Y/n] had point-blank refused to attend the dinner the elves were hosting for them that night; she still wasn’t ready to face Elrond and any of the other elves who would recognise her. After realising that this was an occasion when [y/n]’s stubbornness would not be out-matched – even by a dwarf – the dwarves all swore to sneak food into various pockets to bring her back enough for a proper meal.

“No member of my company will go without a proper meal.” Thorin’s words were eagerly echoed by the rest of the company, including one extremely insistent hobbit (although given the meal of rabbit food they were about to be served, they’d soon think that none of them were going to get a ‘proper’ meal whilst they were staying with the elves.)

As the company - minus [y/n] – made their way towards where they would be eating, Dwalin couldn’t help but feel a tiny thrill of excitement. This dinner could give him the perfect opportunity to quiz Gandalf without [y/n] being present. Maybe he wouldn’t need the young princes and their ridiculous schemes to distract [y/n] after all. Imagine his disappointment when Gandalf wasn’t even sat at the same table as him. He still enjoyed the dinner, all of the company did. What with the terrible food and their knowledge of the elves’ treatment of [y/n], they tried their best to be as rowdy and disruptive as possible.

Dwalin hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Gandalf at the dinner due to their seating arrangements – yet another reason to dislike the elves – but this unfortunately meant that he now had to rely on the childish schemes of Fili and Kili to get [y/n] away from Gandalf.

Being as they were, in Rivendell, the two princes had to hash out a rather crude plan… or at least they thought they had to. That was until they were discovered scheming by two very special elves – Elladan and Elrohir. The two dwarves were instantly on their guard, naturally. They’d been taught to hate elves since birth, and this had only been reinforced by hearing [y/n]’s story. Despite this, there was a certain energy coming from the two male elves that they related to.

“What are you two doing?” One of the elves asked, only for both Fili and Kili to shoot back at the same time. “Who are you?!”

The response that they received was so startlingly like the way they themselves usually greeted strangers that it almost made their beards fall off.

“Elladan and Elrohir at your service, young dwarf masters.” Though their bows were more graceful and less energetic than the bows that Fili and Kili usually blessed people with, they were still completely synchronised. The two dwarves blinked, looked at each other, then back to the elves before rising to give their own greeting.

Something about [y/n] that should, perhaps, have been mentioned earlier was the fact that she really didn’t like to dress like a lady. There was something about the way that women were treated by most males in middle earth that just got on her last nerve. Sure, there was a level of respect that was nice and she didn’t have to worry about her ‘honour’ when she was around males for the most part, but still, being treated like a delicate flower all the time was pretty annoying. Especially when she’d been taught how to fight by Glorfindel himself.

To try and distance herself from this treatment, [y/n] had taken to wearing what was considered ‘mens clothing’. To the credit of the dwarves, so far they hadn’t treated her any different to how they treated the hobbit, and so [y/n] was satisfied that the way they treated her was more to do with their (mistaken) belief that she didn’t know how to protect herself than her gender. Then again, she’d been put into that casket in her usual get-up of mens clothing and [y/n] believed that it was entirely possible they hadn’t really registered that she was a woman yet.

Why is this information necessary now? I’ll tell you, because this information is necessary to understand the prank that the dwarf brothers and the elf twins had come up with.

[Y/n] couldn’t cling to Gandalf forever – she needed to bathe after all. This could have given Dwalin the opportunity he needed, except [y/n] always bathed extremely quickly and the topics Dwalin wanted to discuss seemed sensitive enough that the thought of having [y/n] burst in during the discussion turned the warrior’s ears pink. So when [y/n] went off to bathe Fili and Kili sprang up and followed after her sneakily, nodding to Dwalin, who got up to talk to Gandalf as soon as [y/n] was fully out of sight.

When Fili and Kili found the room where [y/n] was bathing, they found the two elves they’d sort of befriended already waiting outside for them.

“Here.”

One of the elves – Elladan – handed a bundle of clothes to Kili, whilst Elrohir offered an explanation.

“This belonged to [y/n] when she lived here, so we know it’ll fit.” The two elves laughed quietly, trying to keep their voices down so as to not alert the woman bathing behind the door they were all standing in front of.

The dwarven princes had a look of confusion etched onto their faces that was almost enough to make the elves laugh still more, but they managed to contain themselves. This time, Elladan was the one to explain.

“This dress is the only one left. Lord Elrond kept trying to convince [y/n] to wear her dresses – at least for dinners and special occasions – and he kept replacing her clothes with dresses whilst she was sleeping. In retaliation, [y/n] piled all her dresses up in the courtyard and set them on fire. This dress only survived because it was away being altered.” By the end, both Fili and Kili were grinning widely.

“From the little we know of her, that does sound like something she’d do.” Fili managed to get out through this own half-silent chuckles.

“Enough now.” Elladan quickly hushed everyone. “You haven’t got much time, go now, and hurry!”

As the two dwarves opened the door to the room, Elladan and Elrohir skedaddled, knowing that there would be dire consequences from this little prank and they didn’t want to be caught up in [y/n]’s inevitable anger.

As they crept into the room, the dwarves were relieved to find that [y/n] was facing away from them, and that her pile of clothes was within reach. Fili made a grab towards the pile and at the same time Kili put the folded dress down. The two princes bolted, barely having the presence of mind to try and close the door quietly. They knew they didn’t have long before they were discovered.

[Y/n]’s eyes snapped open. She’d accidentally fallen asleep in the middle of her bath, and now she’d woken up with a strong feeling that something wasn’t quite right. She got out of the bath and dried herself off with the towel provided. It felt strange being back in Rivendell knowing it’d been hundreds of years since she’d been there but it felt like mere hours. It was only when [y/n] went to dress herself that she realised what was wrong specifically.

Fili and Kili had made their way back to the common room where the rest of the dwarves were, gaining a concerned look from Dwalin who was still having hushed conversation with Gandalf in a far corner. The princes merely gave him a thumbs up and mouthed at him to continue.

Moments later, [y/n] came rushing into the common room wearing the very same dress that had been left for her – she couldn’t just run around the place totally naked now could she? Her eyes focused on the two dwarves who she thought were capable of doing such a thing, and not to her surprise Fili was still holding an incriminating pile of clothes on his lap. The two princes instantly sprang to their feet and ran off, though Fili still clutched to the bundle of clothes like his life depended on it.

[Y/n] dashed across the room and hurried after them. The members of the company remaining in the room all laughed and shook their heads before returning to what they were doing before. Well, all except Dwalin, who had been left with a very confusing mix of emotions, and it had taken Gandalf several minutes to snap the warrior back to reality so that they could continue their discussion.

[Y/n] chased Fili and Kili for almost half an hour before the two of them accidentally ran head first into a wall. Kili woke up to see his brother’s body being pulled in all sorts of directions and it looked absolutely back breaking. Kili tried to move but found that his wrists and ankles were bound.

“What are you??”

“I’m Sorry,  _I’m Sorry_!” Fili yelled back, desperately trying to squirm away and failing miserably.

Kili, realising he was next, started yelling that he was sorry as well. [Y/n] paused, holding Fili in a fixed position to look over at Kili.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this.” She raised her hand and dramatically pointed an accusatory finger at the younger dwarf.  **“Sorry isn’t gonna help you when I kick your ass!!!”**

When you marched the princes back to the common room almost an hour later you were dressed once again in your regular clothes, whilst Fili and Kili were stuffed into incredibly ill-fitting elvish dresses. They were sore and felt ridiculous, but they were already formulating a plan to get some type of reward from Dwalin for their suffering.

[Y/n] just looked smug as she dropped herself beside Bilbo and effortlessly slid back into the conversation she’d been having with him before she’d gone to bathe as if nothing had happened.

Dwalin, who had finished his conversation with Gandalf by that point, couldn’t pretend that the manner of the princes’ return didn’t amuse him, though he did feel a tiny bit sorry for them. The other dwarves found it hilarious, and they began badgering Fili and Kili into telling them what happened and eventually, two very grumpy and very uncomfortable young dwarves recalled the events for the rest of the company to hear. All of them went to sleep that night with their cheeks aching from laughter.   
Dwalin had, of course, also been highly amused when he’d heard the particulars, though he’d found himself more impressed by [y/n]’s display of stamina and strength.

“That’s my kind of woman.” He thought to himself just as he was settling down for the night. Wait… what?!


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I’m back again for part three! I know that this part is a lot shorter than the other two, but I didn’t want to force it to make it longer just for the sake of it. I didn’t feel like it made sense to include another plot development into this part other than what the conversation between Dwalin and Gandalf was, so please enjoy and stay tuned for part four! Also there’s a little treat for you all if you read through this part till the end!!
> 
> Also I drew a little doodle for this chapter which you can find on my tumblr. It's really bad but I thought it was pretty funny.

The nod that Fili and Kili had given Dwalin when they’d followed [y/n] out of the room had been his signal to go and start talking to Gandalf, and that’s exactly what he did. Gandalf, who’d been expecting the warrior to come and talk to him sooner or later, was hardly surprised and gladly went with Dwalin to a corner of the room where they’d be less likely to be overheard.

Still, Gandalf wasn’t going to make it easy on Dwalin; he wasn’t going to simply offer up information like a bubbling fountain of knowledge. The warrior would have to ask the right questions.

There was a moment of silence after the two males had sat down. Well, this was what Gandalf had been expecting. The grey wizard pulled his pipe out from beneath his cloak and lit it, his actions unhurried. He’d lived too long to see the point in rushing actions merely because they’re not vitally important.

“I believe, Master Dwalin, that you have some questions for me.” He said with an amused twinkle in his eyes after a slow puff on his pipe.

“Aye… that I do.”

Dwalin had his hands planted firmly on his knees as he sat hunched over, trying to find the words to continue.

“[Y/n]… [Y/n]’s casket.”

“Yes Dwalin, we found her in a casket, you observation is correct.” The wizard took another puff from his pipe and looked at the dwarf from underneath the rim of his hat as said dwarf let out a characteristically grumpy huff.

When Dwalin spoke again, his words were slow and carefully enunciated. He was nervous of course, but he was also irritated – mostly because it was quite evident that Gandalf was enjoying himself – but Dwalin needed this information otherwise he felt sure he’d go completely insane, and he might not get another chance to ask.  
“Why did I  _feel_  something when I touched [y/n]’s casket?”

“And what exactly did you feel?”

Dwalin opened his mouth, ready with a string of incredibly explicit curses to spout at this wizard for taking advantage of the dwarf’s ignorance for his own amusement. Luckily for Dwalin, he was saved from making this mistake by the return of Fili and Kili to the common room.

Dwalin felt the strength drain from his body a little at the sight of them, thinking that his alone time with the wizard was nearly over, but the princes clearly didn’t think so. Even so, Dwalin had reached the end of his patience and his pride. The dwarf shifted a little closer to the wizard, lowering his voice still further.

“Gandalf… please.” It wasn’t a word he used often, hardly at all in fact, but he was desperate.

“All right, all right dear boy.” Gandalf brought his hand down on Dwalin’s broad shoulder in a comforting pat. The dwarf wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about being called ‘boy’, but he wasn’t going to cut in now and risk not hearing whatever the ancient wizard was about to say. He supposed that to Gandalf, his age probably did qualify him as a boy anyway.

“There are parts to this tale, master dwarf, that I myself do not even know. The elves would not tell me the specifics of the prophesy. I’m too fond of [y/n]… the risk of me knowing the specifics would be that I’d tell them to her, and that she’d then do everything in her power to prevent them from happening just to spite the vision.” He paused smiling. “I’m a very old wizard; I have a weakness for young, innocent faces.”

Gandalf took hold of his cloak and pulled it tighter around himself, and was ready to continue when the attention of the entire company was caught by a very angry woman in a very fancy dress. Except the dress wasn’t entirely… intact. The sleeves – which should have been long and flowy – had been torn off at the elbows, and the skirt looked like it’d been chewed on by a warg, leaving a massive amount of [y/n]’s pale legs exposed.

Dwalin swallowed thickly and felt his face heat up as he stared. The warrior found that he couldn’t look away, even though he tried… well, he told himself that he tried to at least.

[Y/n] was soon gone chasing after the princes, but Dwalin was frozen in place. The warrior was used to living apart from emotions most of the time; emotions don’t usually help when you’re on the battlefield and so he had no real use for them. Now however, he had so many rushing through his head that he wasn’t entirely sure what to do.

There had been a brief second of shock naturally, but that went even quicker for him than the others, since he knew that Fili and Kili had done  _something_.

Dwarven women were rare and well respected – only a few times in his life had Dwalin seen so much exposed skin on a woman and the sight had never made his heart pound so hard.

He felt embarrassed and ashamed at himself for not looking away, yet deep down he knew he didn’t want to. There was also anger… strange anger, more like jealousy when he quickly came to the realisation that everyone else had also seen [y/n] dressed like that. Dwalin sat stewing with these conflicting emotions, his eyes locked on a random, fixed position for several minutes until Gandalf’s gentle shaking brought him back to reality.

“Shall we continue? Or would you like to keep staring at think air?”

Dwalin huffed and glared at Gandalf from under his thick eyebrows. The wizard held up a hand in surrender – he had a story to finish telling after all.

“Like I said, my knowledge of this matter is incomplete, but I will tell you all that I know.” He leant closer, lowering his voice conspiratorially to a deep rumble before continuing properly.

“There were several parts to the prophesy that the elves saw, though all the parts were intertwined with each other. There was a group that [y/n] was supposed to join, which I now see is this company. Elrond’s men placed her casket where it was foretold you would meet, though I did not know where she was till we uncovered her. There was one other thing that I was told, and I believe I was told this because they knew I’d be with you… they told me how to open the casket.”

Gandalf took a pause once again, partly to continue smoking his pipe, but mostly for dramatic effect. “The way to open that casket was to get one specific person to simply place their hand on the top and voila! The lid appears… otherwise, nothing. Judging from your reaction, Dwalin Fundinson, I believe you and you alone opened that casket. The other company members were simply… there.”

Dwalin’s eyes were practically bulging from their sockets when Gandalf finished.

“Why me? Why me, Gandalf?” He asked, his voice rough, catching in his throat.

“I have my suspicions naturally, but I cannot know for sure. All I can say is that it’s likely you feature heavily in the prophesy.”

What did that mean? Neither knew definitely, but Dwalin’s mind was racing with ideas. Even just the idea of featuring heavily in the prophesy, which meant featuring heavily in [y/n]’s future, had given him the jitters.

But there was nothing more to say, and the pair fell into silence. Gandalf was more than comfortable, but Dwalin had more adrenalin thrumming through his veins than he usually did during a battle.

Dwalin sat like this until the two princes and [y/n] reappeared and he was snapped out of his thoughts by his own amusement at the sight of the two princes in dresses.

He tried to put the thoughts of his discussion with Gandalf from his mind for now. The only think Dwalin could think to do was to see if he could get more information from Lord Elrond before they left Rivendell. Well, if he could swallow his famously strong, embedded dwarvish distrust of elves. 


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part is another shorter one. I’m sorry, Uni has really been kicking me up the bum but I’ve only got one week to go before my spring holiday so I’m looking forward to being more creative over the course of that. :) 
> 
> This part is a little bit of a filler, granted. There are more exciting plot developments to come, but for now this is just a little insight into the company and their time in Rivendell. Also there is some Khuzdul in the following chapter and there’s a translation at the bottom. Please enjoy part 4!

The next day, the whole company seemed to be on edge. They were still in Rivendell, surrounded by elves – never a comfortable situation for a group of dwarves. Apart from that, they knew the elves and Gandalf were discussing something behind their backs. There were whispers of a powerful elf witch being in Rivendell, as well as the head of the Istari Saruman.

Thorin was angry that he was being left out; this was his quest after all, and he was a King in his own right. He deserved to be involved. The rest of the dwarves didn’t particularly mind, but their leader’s foul mood affected them all, and Dwalin was grouchy that he’d been given no opportunity so far to corner Lord Elrond and demand answers.

[Y/n] was totally unbothered by all of this – for someone who’d been trapped in a sleep-like state for hundreds of years, she sure was a late riser… that’s right, the sun had been up for hours and [y/n] was still asleep. The company had started to get concerned, but a healer elf had appeared for long enough to reassure the incredibly protective dwarves (plus the hobbit) that this was a perfectly normal reaction for coming out of the spell she’d been under.

By the time [y/n] finally awoke, the dwarves had built themselves a campfire and had stolen almost half of the meat the elves had stocked in their kitchens.

“Ah, [y/n]!” Balin had noticed her sitting up with a blank half-awake expression on her face. She blinked, trying to get her eyes to focus properly as she returned to the land of the living.

“Mmmmhhhnnnggg…” It seemed that [y/n] wasn’t yet up to giving a reply in any intelligible language. Fili and Kili chortled loudly and settled on either side of [y/n]. One of the two handed her a hairbrush – she wasn’t awake enough to recognise which of the two it was – and they nudged her shoulder with a joking ‘you need it’. They weren’t lying… [y/n]’s hair was practically a rat’s nest. Even so, she glared at the miniscule wooden brush and was just about to chuck it into the fire when the other prince snatched it back.

“Come on sister, we’ll sort your hair out for you.”

Confused on two accounts, [y/n]’s mouth fell open and then snapped shut as she struggled to form any kind of response.

“I thought that hair touching is .. uh .. special and intimate for dwarves?” She asked, perplexed, as each brother began to focus on untangling the hair on either side of her head.

“Correct! Touching hair is reserved for family members and our ones.” Chirped Kili. The two princes made quick work of the tangles in her hair – they were used to working with their own wild manes after all.

“So – but… I’m - ” [Y/n] was still too sleepy to be coherent when she was so confused, but luckily she was understood anyway.

“Mum’s always wanted a daughter.” Fili winked, dipping into his pocket to take out a small carved box.

“We’ve always wanted a sister, too.” [Y/n] felt her cheeks flush and her eyes widened as she glanced around the seated dwarves for any indication of how to react, but she only got encouraging gestures. Well, being adopted by a dwarven family wasn’t the worst thing that could happen… after a moment to get over the shock she found that she was actually quite touched.

“Okay… but why me?”

Kili grinned as Fili opened the box to reveal that it contained several different beads.

“We figured after last night you’re more than strong enough and fiery enough to deserve a place in the line of Durin.” Fili explained, his chest puffing up in pride a little as he mentioned his lineage.   
“Besides” Kili cut in, feeling his brother’s explanation was just a little impersonal. “We like you.” After that, both brothers nodded enthusiastically.

[Y/n] was – for once – silent, but she gladly let the brothers continue combing through her hair. After a few minutes they stopped brushing and started intricately braiding her hair instead. Their warm, calloused, careful hands working in her hair were almost enough to lull [y/n] back to sleep, so when Dwalin and Thorin walked back into the common room, both nursing mugs of ale, the woman had her eyes shut.

Almost instinctively Dwalin’s eyes sought out [y/n], and he promptly spat out an entire mouthful of ale all over the floor at the sight of both young princes burying their fingers in [y/n]’s thick locks. The warrior felt his blood boil, his face turning bright red with anger, but he patiently waited for Thorin to loudly reprimand his nephews for acting so shamelessly. Thorin didn’t. Instead, the King set down his mug of ale and took three great strides across the room. Thorin plucked the bead Fili had chosen from his nephew’s fingertips and fixed it at the base of one of the new braids in [y/n]’s hair.

“Welcome to the family.” His took both of [y/n]’s hands in his and he bent down to rest his forehead against hers. [Y/n] – who’d opened her eyes by that point – beamed up at the King, enjoying his happy attitude when he was usually so stoic. Dwalin was just about ready to explode.

“Call me uncle.” With that, Thorin pulled back to re-join his friend, completely missing the tell-tale signs of his friend’s anger. Fili and Kili hadn’t missed it. They had no inkling of what was causing it, of course, but it seemed to be aimed at them. The safest thing for them to do was to get away from him before he blew up.

“Come on sister, show us around Rivendell!” Both of [y/n]’s hands were caught up by her new dwarven ‘brothers’ and they jumped up, rushing out of the room and dragging [y/n] along between them. By the time they’d left the room, the anger they were trying to escape from had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, only to be replaced by confusion.

“Sister?” Dwalin’s head turned and his gaze burned into Thorin’s face as the King merely laughed at him.

“They came to me before [y/n] awoke to asks my blessing on bringing her into the family. I had no objection – she appears to have no other family and she’s been mistreated enough by the elves. What of it?”

The gruff dwarf puffed himself up a little before replying, feigning confidence. “Well I thought tha-” He cut off abruptly when he saw Thorin eagerly waiting for an explanation and the warrior drew back into himself. “Nothin’.”

Dwalin made to push past the other dwarf, but Thorin put a hand on his shoulder and held him still; he had a rare look of amusement and intrigue on his face. Though prone to getting frequently lost – which often led those around him to question his judgement and abilities – Thorin was by no means a stupid dwarf. Quite the reverse, in fact. Thorin was as quick-witted as his eyes were blue.

“ **Bâheluh** … Don’t think I’ve known you all these years for nothing. I believe I know what’s going on behind that thick skull of yours.”

Thorin didn’t need to say more for Dwalin to realise he’d been figured out. Curse his great friend Thorin for always being quick on the uptake – Dwalin had only just figured out he felt anything for this mysterious woman and Thorin had already seen right through him.

Dwalin huffed and pretended like his ears hadn’t just turned a few shades redder. This earned a hearty guffaw from Thorin, who simply pat his friend on the shoulder before turning his attention back to his ale.

The tattooed Dwarf really didn’t feel like sitting in a room with the smug Thorin at that moment in time. He downed what was left of his ale and puffed himself up a little, trying to force his usual confidence back into his body. It was time that he sought out that blasted elf Lord … and he didn’t care if he had to interrupt some ridiculous secret meeting to get his attention. 

 **Bâheluh**   _\- my friend of all friends_


End file.
